INNO-Appraisal Repository of evaluations: now available online

The Innovation Policy Appraisals Repository (IPAR) sets out to rectify this deficiency. The database, constructed during the first phase of the INNO-Appraisal project, characterises all appraisal activities logged in the INNO-Policy TrendChart database in terms of variables such as funding levels, sponsors, timing, topics covered, approaches and analytical techniques used, audiences targeted, etc.

As a result, analysis of this database now allows a comprehensive picture of evaluation activities to be constructed and will enable the growing communities of both evaluators and commissioners of evaluations to compare practices and benchmark their own activities, all of which should help improve the design of future appraisal exercises.

Moreover, by linking the data characterising evaluations with existing data in the INNO-Policy TrendChart on the policy initiatives themselves, it will be possible to explore linkages and relationships between, for example, different types of policy instruments and different evaluation approaches or impacts. This should help identify potentially interesting examples of 'best practice'. Detailed case studies, to be carried out in the next stage of the project, will elaborate on these relationships and the ways in which the design of evaluations can be optimised.

The result should be a rich source of material for all those interested in both understanding current experiences of evaluation and learning from them.

The INNO-Appraisal project has focused on innovation policy appraisals conducted in the EU-25 after 2002. Of the 273 measures reported as evaluated by the TrendChart database, templates relating to 221 appraisal reports have been added to the INNO-Appraisal Innovation Policy Appraisals Repository (IPAR).

When fully operational, it will be possible to search the repository with a range of search options. The repository is still being updated, and comments and suggestions would be highly appreciated.